My son arrived in a brown cardboard package, no bigger than a shoebox.

I lifted the lid to see him lying there flat on his back, eyes closed, as though he were asleep.

‘Go on,’ my Boss said, ‘lift him up.’

Nervously, I lifted him up out of the box and cradled him in my arms. His skin was velvet. His smell; pure talcum powder. I looked down at his sleeping face and put on a smile, pretending the nausea that was rising in my throat didn’t exist.

Having spent time in Japan, the context built around this story was wonderfully accurate and creepy. During Alasdair's end comments, I cannot make what movie he quoted. The quote was "You know what the cruelest thing you can do to someone you've walked into a room is? Press their face to the window."